The archived blog of the Project On Government Oversight (POGO).

Sep 21, 2011

From Akaka to Amey: 6 Quotable Quotes on Contracting in the Intelligence Community

By DANA LIEBELSON

Yesterday, the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs held a hearing on a hot topic that's only getting hotter: the cost of contractors. In this case, the hearing focused specifically on contractors in the intelligence community (IC). Among those who testified was POGO's own General Counsel, Scott Amey. For readers who didn't have the time or inclination to watch the entire hearing (which has been posted online here), we have collected some quotable quotes—and of course, check out POGO’s new contracting report if you haven’t done so already.

Scott Amey, General Counsel, POGO

“In POGO’s recent Bad Business report, many of the job classifications we analyzed are commercial. However in 2008, the government outsourced approximately 28 percent of its intelligence workforce and paid contractors 1.6 times more than government employees. POGO’s analysis supports those findings.”

Senator Daniel K. Akaka (D-HI)

“Aloha and thank you for being here…during the current budget pressures, I am concerned about the high cost of IC contractors. A recent study by POGO found that federal employees are less expensive than contractors in 33 out of 35 occupational categories.”

“We don’t expect to see a widespread shift away from contractors because of the policy letter, but we do think the letter will help agencies do a better job in identifying if and when rebalancing is needed, and take action.”

Charles E. Allen, Senior Intelligence Advisor for the Intelligence and National Security Alliance

“I’ve been associated with the intelligence community for over 50 years. In many of my assignments…we would inevitably be faced with a dilemma: we needed an individual with a certain skill or talent that was not really available within the organization. Often the best solution in those circumstances was to enter into a contract…that said, from my perspective contractors were part of the team and were held to the same standard as other employees on the staff.”

Mark M. Lowenthal, Ph.D., President and CEO of the Intelligence and Security Academy, LLC

“We have to recognize why contractors get hired: it’s the budget you get…in the 1990’s it was generally assumed that contractors were cheaper than government employees, so we tended to hire more contractors… after the terrorist attacks of 2001, contractors were seen as an expeditious way to ramp up during a sudden national security emergency. Now we have come full circle and are again concerned about the use of contractors.

Joshua Foust, Fellow for American Security Project

“The public consensus that contracting needs to be curtailed is based on some faulty assumptions…the biggest problem facing the IC is not that contractors abuse the system, but that the government has designed a system that encourages abuse… by making the process of contracting more transparent and accountable, most issues would resolve themselves.